TEHRAN (Iran) — If certain religious powers get their way, it may soon be illegal to be a dog.
According to a Reuters report this week, Gholamreza Hassani, the Islamic leader in the northwestern city of Urumiyeh, announced at a recent prayer: "I call on the judiciary to arrest all long-legged, medium- legged and short-legged dogs along with their long-legged owners."
This bizarre statement caused at least one columnist to wonder if the edict exempts "legless dogs dragged around by short-legged people." 2
According to Reuters, canines are reviled by strict Muslims for being "unclean".
"There is a verse in our Koran that if a person … gets sniffed or licked by a dog, that person’s prayer will become unacceptable for 40 days," says Ombra Gandamra, the regional director of the Office of Muslim Affairs in Cagayan de Oro.
{mosgoogle}
Yet, the Reuters article cites that in recent years, dogs have become more prevalent among well-to-do Iranian families. 3
Commenting on the anti-dog crusade (which Hassani has been pushing since 1998), Artin Zaman, one of the founders of the Iranian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says: "Sometimes they go after satellite dishes, sometimes they go after the way women are dressed on the street and sometimes they go after dogs. It’s a way of keeping people distracted so they don’t think about bigger problems."
